The Communication Gap In Patient Services: A survey of 362 healthcare professionals

PATIENTS WANT THEM, PHARMA IS INVESTING IN THEM, BUT FEW PATIENTS AND HCPs KNOW ABOUT THEM

Our newest survey reveals that healthcare professionals (HCPs) value services but don't have strong awareness of them and aren't frequently recommending them to patients.

Accenture has been researching the use, value and awareness of patient services in the top global pharma markets since 2013. Patients have consistently said they want, value and expect patient services from pharma companies—particularly before they are treated for a disease.

85%

of pharma companies are increasing their investments in patient services

(Accenture Research, 2016)

Only 19%

of patients are aware of services available to them

(Accenture Research, 2015)

76%

of patients believe that pharma companies should provide services that complement their products

(Accenture Research, 2014)

Key Findings

SO WHY IS PATIENT
AWARENESS SO LOW?

Healthcare professionals seldom hear about patient services from pharma companies. When they do hear about them, it is mostly as an add-on to the product, not as an essential element in helping them deliver a better patient outcome.

81%

45%

32%

SO WHAT SHOULD PHARMA COMPANIES DO DIFFERENTLY?

FILL THE COMMUNICATION GAPS

Pharmaceutical companies can turn many more HCPs into champions of patient services and in doing so, enable patients to become beneficiaries of those services. To do so, pharma companies should address gaps in these three areas:

R&D And Commercial GapR&D ANDCOMMERCIAL GAPProduct And Service GapPRODUCTAND SERVICE GAPEngagement GapENGAGEMENTGAP

R&D And Commercial GapR&D ANDCOMMERCIAL GAPProduct And Service GapPRODUCTAND SERVICE GAPEngagement GapENGAGEMENTGAP

R&D And Commercial Gap

R&D AND COMMERCIAL GAP

Rigorously generate evidence on the effect of patient services on outcomes—starting with clinical trials.

This calls for embedding services into the development process to generate the required data to prove impact on patient outcomes—starting with clinical trials. Capturing this evidence at the very earliest stages of clinical trials will also help prove the value internally to sales reps, medical affairs and budget holders, who will then advocate or allocate resources so that service programs can be developed more effectively and marketed more purposefully.

Product And Service Gap

PRODUCT AND SERVICE GAP

Some organizations have tasked their brand teams with marketing patient services; doing so has typically led to patient services being an afterthought to the product. Other pharma companies have built separate patient services organizations working separately/in parallel to brand or marketing teams; this approach also relegates services to an add-on position. Leading organizations will embed patient services talent into their existing brand teams to enable their organizations to build and market holistic solutions.

Engagement Gap

ENGAGEMENT GAP

Focus “conversations” with HCPs (and the market) on outcomes—across all channels and with greater frequency.

The entire healthcare industry is shifting to a value-based approach, but pharma companies are still talking primarily about their products. Pharmaceutical companies need to embrace an outcomes-first mindset, which means they are bringing an outcome to market, rather than a product. They need to ensure that every communication through every channel leads with outcome—this approach should apply whether they are communicating to the market through the marketing organization, through sales reps, or through

ABOUT THE SURVEY

We surveyed 362 healthcare professionals (specialty physicians, primary care physicians and nurse practioners) across the US and Europe to understand their awareness, use, and value of patient services. This is the fourth survey we have conducted on patient services to understand market and growth dynamics and the impact of patient services on patient and economic outcomes. Previous research includes two patient surveys and a pharmaceutical patient services executive survey.

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